Traditional guitar, bass and keyboard instrument amplifiers almost universally use an audio cabinet housing a speaker and it's electronics. A control panel, mounted on the exterior of the cabinet and facing outwardly, is commonly positioned in a front wall, a rear wall, or a top wall of the cabinet. Protruding from the control panel's exterior surface is an array of input sockets, control knobs or dials, and switches such as a power switch. In all these cases the input sockets, control knobs or dials, and switches are on a straight common line in a flat plane on the control panel. This alignment design for all the input sockets, controls, and switches is most likely chosen to better facilitate manufacture of a simpler PCB (printed circuit board) so all components can be mounted in a sub ‘assembly’ and thereby reduce time in the assembly process.
While this flat plane design has its obvious cost savings advantages, it does pose one problem that has always plagued the user, namely, the instrument or microphone being connected to the control panel has a cable terminating in an elongated connector (commonly referred to as a plug) that is inserted into an input jack (commonly referred to as a socket) on the control panel. The plug, (for example a ¼″ phone plug or Male XLR connector) has a length of no more than about 3 inches, typically its length is at least 2 inches. This plug extends outward at a 90-degree angle with respect to the control panel's planar surface. The instrument cable extending from the plug typically hangs downward along the front wall or rear wall of the cabinet. This is both unsightly and dangerous. If the cabinet housing tips and falls forward, or backwards in the case of a rear control panel, the instrument plug and input socket take the brunt of the fall. Consequently, the instrument plug and/or input socket will bend or break and/or bend the control panel. In either case, this fall forward, or backward, could render the audio equipment unusable until repaired, and/or new cables can be purchased. Additionally, in the case of a top facing control panel, if a heavy object is placed on top of the cabinet the instrument plug and/or input socket will take the brunt of the weight and may be damaged.